May leads to June and June leads to freedom

It has been a long time since blogging, and finally have a bit of time to think about blogging. I have still been drawing, I haven't forgotten about that, but the blogging has been put on the backburner due to lots of business with life. I have moved into a new house, and I'm sitting in my new art room which makes me really happy as it is a definate upgrade from the last artroom that I used. There have been so many weddings or wedding-related events in the past two months that it has slowed down my production and art-making time. I am somewhat behind on my images, I'm going to have some catching up to do once school is finally over(3 more days!).
Here are a couple of drawings that I've done recently.
Falling.


These next two were inspired by a doctor's office waiting room.

Duet- Illustration Friday

Duet for Illustration Friday. I tried two versions. I'm on images number 193 and 194 for my year-long image a day project, with means that I'm actually a little more than halfway. All year I've been doing pretty good at not falling behind, but in recent weeks I have missed drawing for a bunch of days which leaves me almost three weeks worth of images behind. I'll have to push myself to catch up.

Illustration Friday- Layer

Jackrabbit Layer.

Cabin Collage

This past weekend I went out to the whiteshell to a friend's cabin. We did all the normal fun cabin stuff that you can do in winter-went snowshoing, and skating, hottubbing, and we also did some collaging! It turns out that Keira has been hiding her collage talents from me all these years. Happily we sat in her sunroom cutting, gluing, drawing, and sewing things together. That's where I made the above image. Keira has a lovely collection of fabric scraps that she shared with us. It's amazing how someone elses' fabric scraps are so much more appealing than the ones that I own, because hers are unfamiliar to me. Thanks go to Keira for the lovely weekend, and the collage party!

Collage Drawings!

# 97 Take Flight Collage Drawing with marker wash.


#99 Lost and Alone in the City. Collage Drawing with marker wash.


I realized I really like the idea of incorporating text into my drawings. It's interesting cutting up other people's words, rearranging them, and making them a part of something that I make. It's also interesting searching for books whose purpose will be to cut them up. The local MCC book/Cafe Sam's Place by my house has a great selection of old, strange and discarded books, and all for a very low price. It's funny how with some collages when I finish them, not only do I like to look at them, but I like to touch the texture of collage pieces over the rest of the drawing. That makes me happy.

My friend Sarah is insisting that I start writing children's book with found text. I like the idea, and am considering it. I feel like it would have to be a series of short stories, that might fit my way of working a lot better.

Sheer Ashtonishment

Painting, Drawing, Collage.
I tried painting on drawing vellum because a recent Illustration instructor(Craig Terlson) said that he loved how the ink sits on the vellum. I found I love it too, except that when I went back in with yellow ink, it was too wet for it, and wanted to curl up a bit. Nevertheless, I still like how this image turned out. Part of the image was cut off, because my scanner is only so big, but you get to see the main part of the image. I'm going to try out more vellum paintings, but might stick to just using black India ink on it.
In other news, the Beautiful Mercy and Other Works opening reception was tonight, and the show runs until this Sunday. It's always nice to visit some art. It's an eclectic show, and there are some nice pieces on display. Check it out at 200-75 Albert street.

Sneaky-Illustration Friday

Illustration Friday Image Sneaky.

Happy Marker Day

Filling myself with happy thoughts today I bought a new package of 64 markers. I love it when art supplies are actually entirely affordable and I can find them at Staples. Ah, a new package of unopened art supplies is like a having a little breath of fresh air mingled with excitement, because there is something so satisfying about owning something that's whole purpose is to provide assorted colours to play with.
Here is my green deer from today, made with the new markers. What's with all the deer lately? Well, it's just a theme I decided to go with. I'm teaching myself how to draw them from pictures because then when I feel like drawing deer on my own I'll know how. I still need to work on deer feet.

Happy Green Deer

Deer in Colour!

Continuing with my deer studies, here a few from today. They are all marker washes with ink overtop.

Blue Reindeer


Green Fawn


Red Deer

Don't forget to Listen

#68

#69


These two pieces started out as random words, and they became something more than that. It means something in life if you can listen to the right things, ignore the wrong things, and know which sound to follow.

Safe from Attack

#67 Safe from attack

Collage, drawing, ink...

Reindeer

#64 Green Reindeer

Markers, was, pen and ink. I'm thining about making some Christmas cards out of the deer images.

Hello Dear.

#63 Hello Dear.


I'm in a big deer phase right now. This one was made with markers, wash, watercolours and ink.

Art-a-Day...

#57 Ours are the Hands

Painted on tracing vellum and then collaged.

Art-a-Day

#52 Dear me


#53 and 54- Sadness and Disapointment


#56 Wrong Track

Image-a-Day...

#47 Impatient Monsters - Made with Markers and wash, and pen and ink.


#50 Green Hand - Made with Markers and water wash, with pen and ink.


#51 Freedom - Lino Cut print

I went to an art education workshop on Friday, and made this lino cut print at Martha Street Studios. Martha Street Studios is a printmaking studio that exists as a gallery, studio, and place for community members to make use of it's facilities - they run workshops regularly for adults and also have high school programming and programs for youths. It was nice to finally see this place, because I've been eyeing workshops with them for a while.

Ink Drawing

This one is part of character development for my Illustration class.

Art-a-Day...

I've still been progressing with my art-a-day project. It does take some stamina and devotion to maintain an image a day, but so far am really enjoying it.

#38 Rain Protection


#45 Untitled

Mixed Media, Vegas, and Colour

It feels like ages since I last posted because I've been so busy the last few weeks with moving, going to Vegas, and lots of other life-filling things. I'll have to be more on the ball with posting, and will try not to fall behind in scanning images. I was on a roll last week with collage drawing/paintings. They were fun to do. I also started a Children's book Illustration course two weeks ago. I'm excited about it, but I'm not used to getting graded on my art anymore. I was honestly more than happy to leave grades behind when I finished my degree several years ago. I had a little flicker of fear during my first class when I realized I'd be getting marked on my images. It can be good to be reminded of that, especially as an art teacher. Here are some of my images from the past couple weeks, some of them inspired during a weekend jaunt to Vegas for a friend's wedding.

# 23 Violin Man


#24 I remember Iceland.


#25


#26 Blue Dress


#27 Handgun


#29 A Visit to the Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Illustration Friday-Acrobat

Image #19

Illustration Friday drawing. Watercolours, ink, and ink drawn collage.